What Is A Torrent And How It Works

Many Of Us Uses Torrents On Daily Basis.A Torrent Is A Very Popular Peer To Peer(P2P) Model For Sharing Large Files At Absolutely Zero Price Tag, Yes You’ve Heard It Right !!! Torrents Offer Everything Absolutely Free. It Is Very Popular Among Young Generations Especially The Students. Most Of Them Uses Torrents As A Medium For Downloading Free Files (Movies, Videos, Songs, PDFs) From The Internet. Despite It Is Very Popular Medium Of Files Sharing Many Of Us Didn’t Know About How A Torrent Actually Works. Don’t Worry At The End Of This Article You Will Know What Is A Torrent And How It Works? And What Are The Cautions To Take While Using Torrents?

What Is A Torrent?

A Torrent Also Known As BitTorrent Developed By A Python Based Programmer Bram CohenIn 2001 To Distribute Data In Such A Way That The Original Distributor Would Be Able To Decrease Bandwidth Usage While Still Being Able To Reach At Least The Same Amount Of People. It Works On Peer To Peer(P2P) Sharing Mechanism

A Basic P2P Based Torrent Model

In P2P Model The Sharing Of Files Occurred Between Same Types Of Systems/Computers And Doesn’t Require Any Types Of Servers. These Computers Are Called Peers. To Browse Files Present On The Other System You Need A Torrent Client(e.g. BitTorrent, uTorrent etc.).

When You Start A Torrent Client It Request To Find The File Needed And Show You Number Of Available Sources For That File. The Sources Are The Other Computers Which Have Completed The Downloading Of Files Or Still Downloading That File, But Still Connected Through The Internet And Torrent Client And Serving You The File As An Independent Source. In This Way, The Load Is Distributed And The Downloading Speed Is Faster.

Why Torrents Are So Popular?

There Are Many Reasons For The Extraordinary Growth Of BitTorrent Users.Some Of Them Are Listed Below:

Free: The Files Available On Torrents Are Absolutely Free Of Cost, Means You Doesn’t Have To Pay A Single Penny To Download Those Files.

Data And Files Availability:You Can Find Every Kind Of Files And Data On Torrents. All Types Of Files Are Available On Torrents Like Movies, Videos, Songs, PDFs, Images.

Quality Control: Torrents Enforce 99% Quality Control By Filtering Out Corrupted And Dummy Files, Ensuring That Downloads Contain Only What They Claim To Contain. There Is Still Some Abuse Of The System, But If You Use A Community Torrent Searcher, Users Will Warn You When A Torrent Is A Fake Or Dummy File.

High-Speed Downloading: It Is A Server Less Model Of Files Sharing And Sharing Of Files Is Distributed That Is Why It Offers High-Speed Downloading Of Files.

No Adware/ No Spyware: Torrent Code Is Open-Source, Advertising-Free, And Adware/Spyware-Free. This Means That No Single Person Profits From Torrent Success

Supports Large Files: By Using Torrents You Can Download Large Files. You Can Download Hundred’s Of Gigabytes Of Data Through Torrent And Also It Is Completely Resumable.

Some Common Torrent Terms To Remember

Swarm: A Network Of Computers That Are Connected To A Single Torrents Or Downloading/Uploading A Single File In A Torrent Network.

Pieces: When A Single File Is Converted Into Small Chunks Of Bytes, Then Each Byte Is Known As Piece.

Trackers: A Tracker Is A Special Server That Serves As A Centralized Location. For Every Swarm, A Tracker Collects Peer’s IP Address And Port Number And Share It With Other Peers That Are Connected To That Same Swarm.

Peers: A Peer Is A Computer That Downloaded Some Pieces Of The File And Then Uploading Those Pieces To The Other Computers In That Same Swarm, Thus Reducing The Bandwidth And Increasing Downloading Speed.

Seeds: A Seed Is A Peer Having All Pieces Of The File In A Swarm.

Leach: A Leach Is A Computer That Is Downloading A File From The Swarm Without Uploading The Pieces For Others Peers In The Same Swarm.

Indexers: Websites That Compile Torrents And Provides Information About Torrents Are Called Indexers. They Also Act As A Forum Where You Can Find, Share, Download, Or Request For Torrent Files.

How Torrent System Works?

To Download a File Through Torrents, You Have To Find A .torrent File From Torrents Search Engines. That .torrent File Contains The Information Of File About The File That You Want To Download(e.g. If You Want To Download An EBook Then This .torrent Files Contains The Information About That Particular EBook). It Also Helps In Commencing The Large Bits Sequentially To Form A Complete File.

The Working Of Torrents Step By Step:

A User(Owner) Has A File(e.g. A Movie). And He Is Connected Through Internet And Torrent Client.

He Created A Torrent File (movie.torrent) And Upload It To Torrent Search Engines.

Other Users Wants The Same Movie Search For The Movie On Torrent Search Engines And Downloaded That movie.torrent File.

They Open The .Torrent File Through BitTorrent Client(eg BitTorrent, uTorrent etc.) To Download The Movie.

The BitTorrent Client Convert The File Into Pieces And Send It To The Peers(Other Computers In That Swarm/Network).

The Peers Download The Pieces Of Movie And Upload It To Other Computers.

After A Computer Completely Download A File Then It Starts To Seed That File Means The Bandwidth Is Now Distributed Between Two Computers And The Downloading Speed Will Increases.

Are Torrents Are Illegal?

No, Torrent Are Not Illegal If You Are Not Downloading Any Copyrighted Materials. Downloading A Tv Show, Movie, Or Even A Game Without Actually Paying For It Is Considered A Crime. But, As Torrenting Is An Activity That Is Widespread Across The Globe, Users Believe It To Be Harmless. Several Countries Do Not Have Strict And Concrete Laws To Prevent The Downloading Of Torrents And Their Respective Files. Even Torrent Uploaders Occasionally Encourage Users To Purchase Those Specific Files If Their Experience With That Data Has Been Positive.

However, If You’re Torrenting And Avoiding The Use Of A VPN, You’re Inviting Trouble. You Can Use A Reputed Vpn Solution Like Private Internet Access And ExpressVPN To Safeguard Your Privacy.

Conclusion:

So, This Is The Working Behind The Popular Torrents System/Model. Hope You Like It. If You Have Any Questions, Concerns Regarding This Topic Let Us Know Through Comments.

Thanks!!!

This Article was Published On : 08/09/2017 in GuideCategory If You like our work, Dont Forget to Share This Article: .

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About Pushpender Kumar

Pushpender Kumar is an Indian Part-Time Blogger. He Is A Student And Pursuing Bachelor In Computer Applications.
He Loves To Write About Topic Related To WordPress, SEO, Android, Latest Tech News, Linux, Cyber Security etc.

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3 Responses

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